I was listening to an episode of Behind the Bastards about the slave labor used by Volkswagen in the 1970s and 1980s and this fact came up. Here’s the relevant Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Brazil
Excerpt:
Out of the 12 million Africans who were forcibly brought to the New World, approximately 5.5 million were brought to Brazil between 1540 and the 1860s.
“Did you know that Arabs were also slavers? They were much worse than us! Also America freed the slaves, and if you think about it, it was really the negroes that did it to themselves!”
Yes… So were the Greek and others. Europe didn’t start the slave trade, it already existed when Portugal started exploring the coast of Africa. Portugal just… Optimized the business.
If you’re like me, those quotes mean: This is something really stupid that other people say.
I’m not sure others are reading it that way.